Veggie cakes

Well, this needs to be quick because I'm watching the delayed broadcast of the Eurovision final. There's not much to say anyway: last Saturday I whipped up a batch of chocolate cupcakes thinking I'd decorate a couple for my mum for Mother's Day on the Sunday. First, I decorated one to take to a friend's birthday drinks. I've seen a few versions of this idea and had been wanting to try it myself for quite a while. Have you ever searched on Flickr for "vegetable cupcakes" or looked at all the gorgeous "carrot marzipan cupcakes" with their dusting of chocolate-crumb "dirt"?



Yes, the scale is off (though as someone kindly suggested, it makes some sense if you imagine we're dealing with a baby carrot and a cherry tomato). I did this a little more quickly than would have been ideal; the light is poor because it was getting quite late in the day, and I headed out not long after taking the photo. The next day I put aside a bit more time and came up with this eggplant-and-carrots duo.



It was only later in the week that I started to wonder why the carrots would already have their green tops off but still be lying in the dirt, seemingly freshly picked. And I don't know why an eggplant would end up down there on the soil — or a tomato, for that matter. I should have gone with carrots and... lettuce, for instance. Still, they look fun and are fun (and pretty easy) to do, and Mum was impressed — job done!